Timeline: March 14, 2022 – May 13, 2022
Badminton was an after-school activity and the goal of this sport in our school was to provide the students an opportunity where they could upskill themselves in badminton. Throughout the season, we worked on different skills: such as aiming, learning about the correct body stance, and adding more force to every shot. I have played badminton for almost 11-12 years, and I wanted to upskill myself in smashing and serving. I joined this activity because I wanted to keep practicing and also upskill myself in badminton. During this CAS experience, I demonstrated the following Learning Outcomes:
Learning Outcome 1: Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
Before this activity, I realized that it had been a very long time since I last played badminton and this after-school activity gave me an opportunity to improve upon my skills and go back to playing as well as I was playing before or even better. Now that I have played, I realized that I had some prior weaknesses which needed to be resolved by practicing every day, but I had ignored them. This activity provided me with a lot of time to work on these weaknesses that I was able to master and convert into my strengths. I think it is important for a person to at least strive for perfection, because, even though we may not turn out to be perfect, we get the motivation and opportunity to work on our weaknesses and convert them into our strengths, just like I was able to do in this activity. During this activity, since the seniors had left school during the spring, I also had the opportunity to lead the squad one day. I was able to lead the warm-up, make the teams, and was able to help each student improve their skills by giving them some tips about their stance, and the power that they should use. Therefore, through this activity, I was able to have some personal growth since I learned some leadership skills.
Learning Outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
During this activity, I faced a lot of challenges. One particular challenge that I overcame was my arm strength. Since it had been a long time since I played badminton, I had forgotten how much energy it required. So, on the first day, after the activity, my arm was paining a lot. Therefore, I decided to work on this weakness. I used to go to the gym to strengthen my upper body and especially did a lot of bicep curls to help with my arm strength. I had also done such a thing during my Archery classes. The next challenge that I faced was leading the students. Although I had some experience in how to lead a session or a workshop, I didn’t really know how to make a warm-up session, and choosing which exercises to do on a particular day. To work on this, I talked to the badminton supervisors: Mr.Esmail and Mr.Ahmed, and I also talked with my MYP PHE teacher about deciding which muscles to focus on each day. Through these talks, I was able to gain a lot of insight, and towards the end of this activity I was also able to design an entire warmup plan on my own. Having overcome these challenges, I feel very proud of myself and feel like this challenge helped me to go beyond my limits. I think it was important for me to undertake new challenges as it helped me to learn more about myself.
Firstly, in this experience, I developed as a communicator. I was able to express myself confidently and creatively when asking teachers for guidance. I worked well with others students and listened carefully to their points of view throughout the experience. Secondly, I strived to be more reflective during this experience. I thoughtfully considered and worked to understand my strengths and weaknesses and also each student’s strengths and weaknesses in order to support our personal development. Lastly, I attempted to be more caring during this experience. I showed empathy, compassion, and respect towards my teachers and the students.
